Tag Archives: eggs

There are many thing for which I am thankful- indoor toilets, yard sale Saturdays, seeing ONE MINUTE LEFT on the treadmill.

But above all else I am thankful for my friends. Their companionship, support, and smiles make so many things which might be typically unbearable absolutely worthwhile and rewarding.

After having the fortnight from hell, I was all too happy to spend a night in Greensboro with some of the universe’s most spectacularly sparkly and smiley people.

As you can see, I was not speaking metaphorically when I said ‘sparkly’.

We saw The Hood Internet at Artistika Nightclub in downtown Gate City- we danced, we smiled, we posed cheesily for photographs. All in all, it was one of the better nights I’ve had in a long LONG LONG time.

After a brief decompression on Saturday morning, I decided to brunch it up with a couple of my favorites at one of my absolute favorite restaurants, Smith Street Diner.

Smith Street serves breakfast all day, and they make biscuits the size of your head (I’m not even kidding- I didn’t get a biscuit, but one of these days I’ll photograph one for you guys- seriously, the size will blow your mind). The waitstaff is really friendly, and the restaurant is decorated with pictures of decoupaged pigs. Of course, we’re not the only people in Greensboro who know about the awesomeness of Smith Street- since the restaurant is very small, be prepared to wait for a table. Luckily, our timing was perfect and we were seated immediately.

Oh yeah, these kids came too:

From Left: Tom Tom Club (Tommy), Bob The Builder (Bobby), and ReynoldsWrap (Sara)- Look At Those Sleepy Breakfast Faces

One of the best parts of Smith Street Diner is that if you get an omelette, you can get it stuffed with an array of toppings- for no additional charge! What does that mean? It means that I ate my weight in mushrooms and black olives, that’s what.

More specifically, there were lots of peppers, mushrooms, olives, and other vegetables spilling out of my delicious breakfast. For an additional $1, you can have an egg white omelette- I opted to do this, and so my ww points+ values were slashed dramatically. I also made the mistake of ordering “hot peppers”- this meant my mouth was engulfed in flames of jalapeno pain. The omelette is served with grits (or home fries) and toast (or the aforementioned epic biscuit). I had rye toast, and only ate one slice (a freaking miracle). Also, the other nondescript bowl on the plate is gravy- that’s right, Smith Street serves a true Southern breakfast with a side of sausage gravy. I managed to curb my gravy enthusiasm and left the bowl relatively untouched (please don’t begrudge me the teensiest toast gravy dip- it had to happen).

All in all, Brunch at Smith Street Diner is the perfect addition to a Greensboro day- especially when you can share it with your “glitterazzi” friends.

(on an unrelated note, early Friday evening was highlighted by a spirited water jogging session. I really love water jogging, but quite ironically I got caught in the rain without an umbrella on my way home from school on Friday- so basically, I went water jogging TWICE.)

My schedule has been so congested recently that I haven’t had time to stop and smell the roses- I’m just rushing from one location to the next like an insane person. Earlier this week, my girlfriend and I were going to have breakfast at a new restaurant in town but we both couldn’t make the time to do it. Today we finally got our acts in harmony and had an early breakfast at the Screaming Rooster.

There are few things I love more in this life than eating out in restaurants. ESPECIALLY a new restaurant (or new to me, anyway). The Screaming Rooster is housed in a building which used to house one of my other favorite restaurants, Mary’s of Course (MOC is now called Breakfast of Course and has a lovely new location in downtown W-S….and vegetarian AND vegan options…seriously, so freaking delicious).

Both the Screaming Rooster and BOC use lots of local ingredients from farmers with which they’ve built personal relationships, and they serve their food in a friendly, unassuming atmosphere. I was so excited about going to the Screaming Rooster that I looked at the menu earlier this week and decided to order the Irish Steel Cut Oats with roasted seasonal fruit. Sounds delicious, right? Well, when we actually arrived in the restaurant, the inner Southern girl in me took over and I ended up ordering bacon, eggs, and a bowl of grits (with fruit on the side):

This breakfast may seem a little boring and uninspired, but nothing could be further from the truth. Making a perfect bacon, eggs, and grits breakfast is not as simple as you think- MANY restaurants ruin these dishes spectacularly. However, the Screaming Rooster’s “Morning After” is cooked just right: the bacon is nice and crispy, the eggs are not too runny, and the grits are SO SMOOTH (and trust me, I’m an amateur grits aficionado- I’ll never steer you wrong when it comes to glorified gruel). This plate totals 9 WW points+, and only costs $7– basically, I’ve found a new favorite restaurant.

In other food-related news, remember when I made a thousand pounds of whole-wheat pizza dough and didn’t know what to do with it? (ok, so it wasn’t quite a thousand pounds- but it was more than a single household needs to keep on hand.) Well, I decided to make myself a calzone for yesterday’s lunch.

I’m not sure, but I think calzones are probably in my top 15 favorite foods- it’s basically just cheese and whatever filling you want. And for someone who doesn’t love tomatoes they are especially awesome because calzones traditionally do not contain any sauce. However, because of their cheesy goodness, calzones tend to be pretty high in fat content and generally really unhealthy. However, I scaled down the caloric content of my calzone by putting in 1/4 cup of fat-free ricotta cheese (1 wwpoint+) and 1 oz of reduced fat mozarella cheese (2 wwpoints+) Ok, so maybe I actually put in 2 oz of mozz- but do as I say, not as I do.

Anyway, I also loaded up my calzone with olives, spinach and onions. You can put in whatever you like, but those flavors make my tastebuds sing.

After these process photos were taken, I cut slits in the top, baked it, and it turned out perfectly golden brown and delicious. You’re probably wondering why there are no final shots of the calzone. Yes, that’s right- I ate the finished product before it could be photographed.

What tasty foods have you made recently? Are there any awesome restaurants in your town which make eating out even more exciting than usual?